Acute pain management in Hong Kong

A Kwan
Department of Anaesthesia, United Christian Hospital, 130 Hip Wo Street, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong

A survey was conducted to assess the current status of acute pain management in public hospitals under the management of the Hospital Authority, Hong Kong. Seventeen questionnaires were sent and 14 replies were received. Seven 50% hospitals reported that they had formal acute pain services. The situation in Hong Kong is comparable to that in the United Kingdom (44%), United States (43%), and Australia (33%). Most anaesthetic departments in Hong Kong (90%) with acute pain services have protocols but auditing and continuous quality improvement activities were lacking because of limited resources. The majority (93%) of the responding hospitals felt that the service should be further developed and that this could be done through injecting more resources, increasing training in the area of pain management, and by increasing awareness among professionals and patients.

Hong Kong Med J 1996;2:381-4

Key words: Pain clinics; Analgesics; Pain, postoperative; Palliative treatment